Libertarian Party getting hot

Largely ignored by the mainstream media for most of the presidential campaign, Libertarian Party nominee Gary Johnson is suddenly racking up headlines in The Washington Post and New York Times and on CNN and NPR.

Volume of coverage is a difficult thing to quantify comprehensively, but consider one striking metric: Lexis-Nexis, which logs articles and transcripts from thousands of news outlets, tallied 452 stories related to Johnson in U.S. media between May 18, the day he tapped former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld as his running mate, and June 3. That’s more attention in a 17-day span than he had received in 4½ months of campaigning to that point.

I hope as more people despair of a choice between Clinton and Trump, that the media will continue to cover the Libertarian Party candidates.

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Comments (42)

s.russell

It’s possible, but unlikely to be on his merits. Much of the MSM coverage will probably be motivated by a desire to sabotage Trump (though the actual effect may not work out quite like that). Never the less, if it gets libertarian ideas being discussed that will be good. Some people may even discover that they make a lot of sense.

stephieboy

mm, I wonder if Gary Johnson believes in the right to have incest between consenting adults ? The radical social liberal agenda is bound to turn off many Christian and Conservatives ,splitting the GOP vote further.

I heard the clown get interviewed. He was thank homosexual marriage and laws around it like providing services should be made at a federal level and not left up to the state. When asked about polygamy which he had no problem with he thought it should be decided at a state level. He failed to address his inconsistency.

Bob R

tom hunter

I must say that I’m enjoying the freedom of spitting on the two major parties. The way I figure it I can do the following from November 8, 2016 onward:

A. Trump loses / Hillary wins:
I get to taunt all the Trump worshippers who were convinced he’d smash Hillary. The words “Yuuuugggge Loooossssseeerrr” will be used often; Kryptonite to Trumpists. Not that it will matter as, like their godhead, they’ll blame everybody else, especially all those right-wingers who refused to vote for the man – the ones he said he didn’t need. I’ll be taunting very angry, shouty people.

But over the next four years I get to taunt all her shills as she proceeds to stab them in the back over healthcare, immigration, the TPP, climate change, energy and foreign policy. Money.

B. Trump wins / Hillary loses:
I get to taunt all the Hillary shills, especially as they wail and cry about what a dreadful racist, sexist bunch of losers American voters have become. I’ll be taunting very angry, crying people.

But over the next four years I get to taunt all his rubes as he proceeds to stab them in the back over healthcare, immigration, the TPP, climate change, energy and foreign policy. Money.

mikenmild

tom hunter; stab them in the back over healthcare, immigration, the TPP, climate change, energy and foreign policy.

I get most of those (as examples of possibly typical pandering promises to be betrayed after election), but why Health Care? Hillary hasn’t promised much to betray anyone’s hopes over regarding health care has she?

Dave Mann

I’ve said this before on other threads: it’s a sad indictment on America today that out of a THIRD OF A BILLION PEOPLE the only real choice of presidential candidates is between these two turkeys, Clinton and Trump. The USA must be totally fucked.

Urban Redneck

Where have I read it before that many libertarians are really just lazy Marxists?

That’s because libertarianism is essentially Marxism of the Right . . a delusional mirror-image utopian ideology to the classical Marxist doctrine where heaven on earth can be brought about thru altruism and collectivism, libertarianism offers it thru individualism and selfishness.

I’m still a supporter of Johnson by a vast distance when forced to compare him with Clinton and Trump. But I have to say, after the last ten days since his nomination, he’s really screwing up. He seems to be spending all his time courting disaffected Boinie voters, rather than going for the sensible centre, which is where people are crying out for an alternative. This is forcing him into an ideological corner where people will just see him as another Leftist. He is unlikely to be successful with the Sanders voters, and even if he is, he’s turned off everyone else. It seems an especial waste of time pissing off religious voters, who are most disaffected by an election with Clinton and Trump in it. Johnson is already polling at 16% in Utah FFS! Why throw that away?

I suspect he does not have good people advising him, which is a shame, because any far fetched notion that he might affect the result of the election seems to be slipping away fast.

Boris Piscina

You know, maybe Trump will prove to be quite a good President, even if the lefties don’t like him, and even though they behave as if they believe that he shouldn’t have the right to stand because they don’t agree with him, and that people shouldn’t actually have the right to vote for him because they don’t agree with him (that’s Leftie Politics 101 BTW).

You know, a bit like Reagan, and Bush Snr, and Dubya, and those other guys who turned out to be quite good Presidents.

Liam H

Some conservatives make that incorrect and illogical claim.

It might be incorrect. I’m not sure it’s illogical. There are reasonable arguments to be made that both ideologies share some essential characteristics. For example, they are both draw heavily on materialism, a priori reasoning and abstract principles to aim for a world that has never before existed.

Where Marxists tend to put more stress on collectivism than human nature can bear, libertarians seem to put an equal stress on individualism. The reality is that both are contrary to human nature. You can no more run a working society on freedom and personal responsibility alone than you can on cooperation and altruism alone.

I don’t think the same holds for conservatism or old fashioned liberalism because neither of those involves a comprehensive way for thinking about human affairs. They are not intellectual principles so much as unconscious tendencies readier to admit of the inconsistencies that, for better or worse, have always been part of human society.

But a more workaday comparison would be the way that both ideologies tend to attract crankery. In the Road to Wigan Pier, George Orwell lamented that the bearded, sandal wearing vegetarians who were so prominent in socialist circles drove away ordinary people. If you’ve seen reports about the US Libertarian Party convention, you would observe much of the same.

JMS

Only in the sense that Marxism advocates theft of material wealth, and libertarians don’t.

a priori reasoning and abstract principles to aim for a world that has never before existed.

That would apply to some purists, such as Ayn Rand’s Objectivists and Murray Rothbard’s Libertarians.
There’s nothing abstract about the excellent ideas and practical solutions suggested by Milton Friedman.

Where Marxists tend to put more stress on collectivism than human nature can bear, libertarians seem to put an equal stress on individualism.

Marxism forbids individualism. Libertarians have no issue with people entering into voluntary collective arrangements.

Liam H

mikenmild: Like voting for a government that socialises medical care?
JMS: No. That would not be a voluntary arrangement, unless all voters agreed to it.

I’m not sure Socrates would have agreed:

For, after having brought you into the world, and nurtured and educated you, and given you and every other citizen a share in every good that we had to give, we further proclaim and give the right to every Athenian, that if he does not like us when he has come of age and has seen the ways of the city, and made our acquaintance, he may go where he pleases and take his goods with him; and none of us laws will forbid him or interfere with him. Any of you who does not like us and the city, and who wants to go to a colony or to any other city, may go where he likes, and take his goods with him . But he who has experience of the manner in which we order justice and administer the State, and still remains, has entered into an implied contract that he will do as we command him.

I think there is far too much collectivism in the world and ideally the state would be pushed back to its core functions. That being said, I do think that more collectivism is required to make society work than libertarians generally concede.

Almost everything has something in common with something else, but as far as libertarianism goes, I can’t think of any set of political ideas that are more different to Marxism.

Why don’t we listen to Gary Johnson himself who recently said:

Of course I side with myself 100 percent of the time, but interestingly, of all the presidential candidates, I next side with Bernie Sanders at 73 percent.

mikenmild

JMS

That being said, I do think that more collectivism is required to make society work than libertarians generally concede.

We do require more collectivism than purists like Rand and Rothbard would want. That’s why I prefer the very practical Milton Friedman.

Why don’t we listen to Gary Johnson himself who recently said:

Of course I side with myself 100 percent of the time, but interestingly, of all the presidential candidates, I next side with Bernie Sanders at 73 percent.

He probably did one of those online political compass tests which place the same percentage weight on all questions, and ask a ratio of two economic policy questions to every five social policy questions. Got 73% overlap and thought he could use that to win over some Sanders voters.

Raphael

DifferentPerspectivesays:
Any port in a storm?

Seriously – these folks have totally no chance at all! It’s a bit silly even to suggesting they’re in the running.

Probably, but I’ve chatted with a fair number of both Republicans and Democrats who are faced with holding their noses while they choose between Trump and Hillary who are looking at the Libertarian party and thinking it’s a better alternative to those two.

They won’t win, but they could get their best number ever which will raise their profile further.

deadrightkev

DPF

No one is going to elect a libertarian. No matter how good the policies are in reality for society. All Gary Johnson will do is give one or two percent to Clinton. Sanders being shafted by the Dems will hand up to 40% to Trump.

The only person that can win the presidential election in America in 2016, saving assassination and voter fraud is Donald Trump. I think both are likely especially voter fraud. The stakes are so high and corruption is an art form there.

No one in their right mind will elect Clinton as president on her history or on merit.

Boris

The anti Trump outcry is irrational and illogical. I think he has all the skills to make a great job of rebuilding America across the board. Its fucked otherwise.

If it means splitting the centre-right vote, which I suspect it does, then I’m all for it! Although as you can see, there is an outreach group called “Republicans for Hillary Clinton”, which suggests that some Republicans abhor the prospect of Trumpesque populism so much, they’re willing to cross party lines: